A Positively Moving Experience
Moving With Children
Moving With Children
When children are involved, the already complicated task of moving everything you own from one place to another nearly triples in complexity. All the time and effort you’ve put into childproofing every room is suddenly disrupted by the need to put everything in boxes and clean up the empty spaces. For toddlers, a house in disarray is nothing but an opportunity for mischief and exploration. In order to keep them from indulging in their self-destructive tendencies, parents need a plan to keep their young children busy, and take precautions for when those plans fail.
Maintaining a Safe Environment
From your lofty stature and refined perspective, you may be able to look upon your packed up house and see a safe, secure environment. Your children, on the other hand, may see boxes to climb or crawl around, colorful cleaning materials, and unprotected electrical outlets. The first priority parents have during a move is to periodically think like their kids and consider every object in reach as edible. Generally speaking, everything you see that could possibly go in their mouths should be put out of reach. It may seem silly, but doing a thorough check means getting on your hands and knees and investigating the environment from your child’s perspective. It’s better to be careful than sorry.
Block Off A Room
If you want to minimize the amount of checking around you have to do, set up a single space you can keep your children without them getting too feisty. You can leave a few toys unpacked, set up some bedding for naps, or leave a small TV and DVD player that you can move last. Preferably, you want all of the above. Leave as many things as you can bear to out to keep them entertained.
Keep Your Children Busy
The simplest preventative measure that also keeps your kids out of the way is to put them to work. That doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be doing anything useful, but there are plenty of safe tasks that can be done during a move that will keep your kids safely distracted. Instead of just labeling boxes with permanent marker, get some washable ones and let your kids decorate them based on their contents, or just stick them with their own stuff. Drawing is an activity that kids are easily immersed in, and if they think they are helping, they’re more likely to stay with whatever project you give them.
Consider Daycare
Moves are already expensive enough, yes, but simply removing your child from the equation reduces stress levels and the likelihood of an accident. Both you and your stuff will be safer if you can just keep your child somewhere else for a while. If they’re school age, try to work in the bulk of the move while your kids are in class.
Thinking about how you’re going to childproof your move before it happens will save you a great deal of stress and hair-pulling later. Whatever obstructive habits your child already has are the ones you’ll most likely see magnified during the transition, so prepare for those and you’ll make it fine.
